In cook-off, state employees turn it up

In cook-off, state employees turn it up

Relishes and dips on display at the Vermont Farm Show’s Buy Local Market Wednesday night at the Champlain Valley Exposition.

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Tristan Toleno, a chef and state representative from Brattleboro, cuts bacon for a warm bean salad that was part of his team’s entry at the Capital Cook-off Wednesday night at the Champlain Valley Exposition.

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A version of a fish taco, Agency of Agriculture-style, won the Capital Cook-off Wednesday night at the Champlain Valley Exposition.

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A judge prepares to take a bite of what would be the winning dish at the Capital Cook-off Wednesday night at the Champlain Valley Exposition. The meal, prepared by employees at the Agency of Agriculture, featured paratha with fried perch.

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Alyson Eastman (left) and Dan Connor, members of the Vermont House, slice celery root at the Champlain Valley Exposition Wednesday night. The root-vegetable slaw was a side dish in the Capital Cook-Off, a contest in which the House lost its 2014 crown to the winning team from the Agency of Agriculture.

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Alyson Eastman (left) and Dan Connor, members of the Vermont House, slice celery root at the Champlain Valley Exposition Wednesday night. The root-vegetable slaw was a side dish in the Capital Cook-Off, a contest in which the House lost its 2014 crown to the winning team from the Agency of Agriculture.

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January 29, 2015

Sally Pollak

ESSEX JUNCTION Not so long ago, the Vermont Farm Show was held at the Barre Auditorium and the event featured a milking contest. The show has moved to the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction and the competition is a cook-off, the Capital Cook-off.

Whether this represents the suburbanization of Vermont or the diversification of farming — a little of both, or maybe neither — was not contested Wednesday night at the Expo. Rather, food — straight from the lake with value-added — was prepared, tasted and judged.

Politicos and bureaucrats were the cooks. Assorted foodies and a politco were the judges. A new Vermonter who earned a place on the Agency of Agriculture Capital Cook-off team with the kebabs she made for a holiday party, anchored the winning team.

Her paratha, a fried flatbread stuffed with potatoes and onions, formed the savory foundation for lake perch.

Lalarukh Saleem, an administrative assistant in the agency's dairy section, and her teammates were delighted by the win. They topped the defending champions from the Vermont House of Representatives, a team that included a professional chef.

Saleem moved to St. Johnsbury with her husband and two young daughters in August. The family wants to start a "proper Indian restaurant" in Vermont, Saleem said, an endeavor that will probably start in several months with a food truck.

"We love it here," Saleem said.

The three teams had an hour to cook with a selection of local foods, including a surprise ingredient thrust upon them in the moments before chopping began: yellow perch.

"I want them all to win because it's all Vermont grown products," Gov. Peter Shumlin said at the Expo. "I'm excited that they're cooking with yellow perch."

The perch represented the state's efforts to make Lake Champlain cleaner. The fish was also the taste of a new (and old) market for Vermont agriculture.

The winning team used the perch, seasoned and fried, on top of Saleem's paratha to create a kind of fish taco. The second-place team, from the House, set the perch atop a pile of warm bean salad cooked with bacon and onions, served with a side of beet and celery root slaw. In last place, but perhaps No. 1 in jokes and banter, was the team of state senators.

State Sen. Dick Mazza, the "godfather" of the senate team, in the word's of teammate Michael Sirotkin, said he sold lake perch for many years at his Colchester store.

"I used to fish when I was younger," Mazza said. "We're going back in time."

A variety of cooking methods were on display at the expo: Shumlin at one point took the knife from Sen. Bobby Starr and showed the Northeast Kingdom Democrat how to dice onions. Mazza pounded pork chops with the bottom of a jar of sunflower oil, flattening them for Sirotkin's pork chops florentine with kale.

"It's the only dish I've ever made in my life," Sirotkin said.

Peg Flory, a state senator from Rutland, sought help for one of cooking's greatest challenges: squeezing honey from a plastic teddy bear.

Rep. Tristan Toleno of Brattleboro, a caterer and chef, used the old wrist shake to stir a pan of sauteed beans and veggies, and instructed his teammates on how best to slice root vegetables.

"Everybody brings their experience to the legislature," Toleno said. "That's what the job is about."

Carolyn Partridge is chairwoman of the House committee on Agriculture and Forest Products. Adjusting her chef's hat before the contest, Partridge said she felt "significant pressure" to defend the House's Capital Cook-off title.

It was "a dark day" in years past when the Agency of Agriculture won the contest. Her team last year prepared "a really beautiful plate," she said. "I don't remember what."

During the woo-the-judges phase of the competition, Toleno presented the House dish and described the melding of flavors. Sirotkin told the judges he was certain senators had made the first "pork and perch" meal. The Agency of Agriculture touted its food with a broader appeal:

"There's more than a million dollar fishing industry in the lake," John Roberts told the panel. A cleaner lake will help generate a bigger and better fishing industry, said Roberts, small farm water quality inspector for the Agency of Agriculture.